April Fool’s Day – TechCommGeekMom

Hello, friends! 🙂

If you didn’t figure it out by now, I’m not going anywhere. My post, “Sayonara, TechCommGeekMom,” was an April Fool’s Day prank. I was put up to the task by none other than Al Martine and Connie Giordano, editors of TechWhirl. They approached me with the idea to add an article to their annual April Fool’s Day edition of TechWhirl. It was actually Al’s idea for me to write a send-off for my blog, and hopefully, I succeeded in my first attempt at writing satire. The scary thing is, much of that article wasn’t that far-fetched! I wouldn’t mind having a PhD in either History or Tech Comm, working at a yarn store (I do know how to knit, and I actually do understand the differences between types of wool), or pursuing genealogy as a profession. The reality is that none of that is happening anytime soon, and I’m not giving up tech comm or this blog. (Although, it seems that my “demise” garnered many hits on my blog. I’m hoping that it’s because you’d all miss me!)

If anything, I’m more dedicated than ever to keep this little blog going. It’s been quite the journey already, and with the all-time hits approaching the 20,000 mark, and over 600 curated and original posts here, I don’t want to lose momentum. In my eyes, I’m still growing this blog, and it’s still a baby. Would I like to attain the kind of readership that someone like, say, Tom Johnson, has? Absolutely. Tom has a head start on me, having been a tech writer for a longer time, and also having kept a tech comm blog for a longer time. And that’s okay. Tom is totally cool, so if I can be like him in eight to ten years of growing my blog, I’m good with that. We’re not in competition anyway, as we don’t necessarily address the same things. He’s also earned the top tech comm blogger title because he provides insightful and helpful information. Over time, I hope that I am providing that same kind of service. (Hey, I was just thrilled to death when he recognized me at the Intelligent Content Conference last month!)

So, no worries! I’m still here. I’m going to be continuing to write and curate information about blogging, technical writing, e-learning, m-learning, and any other cool tech-geek stuff that I can find that I feel is worth sharing. I’m always open to ideas on how to grow my blog, including having guest bloggers, discussions, polls–anything–to keep ideas fresh and discussions flowing. If you’d like to see a topic covered, let me know!

TechCommGeekMom continues to be built on the concept of creating a tech comm and e-learning community, where newbies like myself could converse with more experienced technical communicators in a relaxed and casual atmosphere, sort of like friends hanging out at the kitchen table at Mom’s house. In this case, it’s TechCommGeekMom’s table, so pull up a chair. I’m sure I’ve got some snacks around here somewhere.

This post is to announce to the tech comm world that TechCommGeekMom, which has been a tech comm blog running for two years now, is closing its book. I’m just burnt out trying to come up with original articles and spending my time curating relevant information to include on it. It’s time consuming like you wouldn’t believe. Since this was a labor of love—well, the love is lost now. I want a divorce. In fact, I’m leaving tech comm altogether, if I’m going to be forthcoming. Why? I’ve just had enough of it all. Sure, I was all revved-up when I got out of grad school, ready to go and share all my ideas and knowledge with the world, but the world is fickle and unkind. Decent tech comm jobs are hard to come by. My blog was an extension of me showing what I know beyond my resume in the tech comm field. Well, after going to several conferences and working in the field now, it turns out I don’t know too much, and I don’t think I’ll ever catch up. I’m not cut out for this, so I’m quitting while I’m ahead.

Instead, I’ve chosen to fall back on topics that I feel more comfortable with, and I’m pursuing those. I’m going back to what I originally majored in during my college years—history—and I’ve been accepted at Princeton University to pursue a PhD in British History. I’m rather excited about it all. It’s been eating away at me for years that I never followed up my initial studies to transcribe the works of Algernon Sidney beyond his Discourses Concerning Government work and write about them. To supplement my income, now that I won’t be working in tech comm during my studies, I’ll be working during the week at the NJ State Library helping amateur genealogists with their research digging through old newspapers and census records. Once I receive my PhD, I’m hoping that I can go get a job working at the Tower of London or the British Museum, cataloging antiquities or something like that. Maybe working at Debrett’s Peerage would be even more ideal. I’ll need to work weekends too, so I’ll be working at the local yarn shop helping other knitters. Providing knitting help should be interesting, since I can’t even knit beyond your basic knit and purl stitches. It’s an important life skill knowing the difference between merino wool, cashmere wool, and knowing what’s made of acrylic instead, after all.

Yes, getting back to basics will be good for me. It’ll be busy, but it’ll be less stress, less tech. Just what I need.

So, thanks, tech comm, for the kicks and giggles. It was good while it lasted.

Oh, and I hope to see a bunch of you at the 2014 STC Summit.

(Update 4/1/14 at 11:14 PM: Happy April Fool’s Day. Read my post tomorrow afternoon.)